To billions of people around the world, sales and marketing mean the same thing. Yes, both may be geared towards growing the revenues of any business, but are still two different things.
One creates awareness for your company’s products and services, while the other ensures people actually buy the product. Their distinctions cause various organizations to hire people in the sales & marketing departments with different streamlined goals and objectives.
Sales and marketing are needed for any valuable business growth to occur. They work together and are less effective if they exist without each other. While their functions are separate, to people who know what they actually mean, they like to spend time debating which is really more important to any business. The two of them are needed to have a successful business.
If you’ve had a tough time distinguishing the difference between sales and marketing, here are 5 things you should know:
See Also: How To Build An Effective Sales Team From Scratch
1). Long-Term Vision Vs. Short-Term Vision:
Marketing is planned and structured around long-term goals and objectives. Since the essence of running marketing campaigns and skits is to create a broad awareness for any brand, the conversion period is usually long-term, and so, the campaigns are tied around ensuring the long-term results have valuable effects.
As for sales, the focus is on the short-term, because this is the department that ensures prospects quickly convert into customers. Results are expected on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, and so, this is the key department that ensures the organization generates revenues that’d enable it to become cashflow positive.
The distinction in the vision timelines is a core difference between sales and marketing.
2). One to Many Marketing Vs. One on One Marketing:
Since marketing is pretty much the series of planning, implementation, and control of business activities to bring together buyers and sellers, it’s planned and run around spreading word to as many people as possible.
Sales, on the other hand, is literally a transaction between two people; a buyer and a seller. Here, there’s a much more direct connection between both parties, thereby greatly increasing the chances of making an actual sale.
See Also: 4 Underused Marketing Strategies That Gets Results
3). Telling Stories Vs. Bringing The Stories To Life:
Most successful marketing campaigns are tied around telling stories that are geared towards building a connection between a prospect and a brand. This is usually the first point of contact the prospect has with the brand, and how well the story is told will determine if the prospect someday converts into a customer.
Sales, on the other hand, brings the stories to life, because the prospects can now see, feel, and experience a physical entity from the brand. If the salesperson does a darn good job of pitching the company’s products and services to the client, it humanizes the brand and creates a far greater chance of the prospect converting into a customer.
4). Building A Brand’s Reputation Vs. Build Direct Customer Relationships:
Marketing focuses largely on the value of a brand, what it is perceived as, and what people tend to do or think of when they hear its name, see its colors, or come in contact with any of the brand’s triggers.
Sales, on the other hand, focuses more on building personal relationships. The salesperson gets to know the customers one on one, and as such, can also drive them to purchase from the company over and over again. This is why most people who leave organizations to start up a competing business are mostly the salespeople because they already have a sizeable number of the customers in their reach.
See Also: How To Know If People Are Talking About Your Business
5). Research-Based Customer Expectations Vs. Individual Preferences:
Marketing is based on case studies, research, and well-known consumer behaviors. Since it is not run on a one-on-one basis, the campaigns, advertisements, and more, must be tied around using the best practices that have a great chance of converting prospects.
Sales focus rather on each individual’s preferences. Since every salesperson understands his or her clients, they always strive to tailor specific solutions to each, which constantly increases the chances of them making repeat purchases of products and services from the organization.
To Sum It Up
While it may be apparent that the salespeople are responsible for the growth of every business’ revenue, it is largely untrue. Without the value that the marketing department successfully creates for the company’s brand, the salespeople will have a far tougher job in successfully closing transactions for the organization.
The sales opportunities that customers truly value are very important for every organization. And this is what the marketing team creates and makes a whole lot easier for the sales team to act upon.
Both cannot completely work without each other. While the marketing team needs the sales team, the sales team equally needs the marketing team. And when highly talented people run both teams, the company’s revenues would shoot through the roof.
See Also: Don’t Make Any Of These 7 Dangerous Sales Mistakes!
